Mountain goats ready to conquer Oman's surprise mountain

The world class calibre of sprinters racing in the Tour of Oman will be forced to take a pedal stroke or two back from the limelight on Saturday and submit to the mountain goats of the pack.

The 158km fifth stage of the 875km race that finishes on Sunday will be highlighted by one of the first major mountain finishes of the year.

So just what does the stage from Muscat's Royal Opera House to the finish line 5.7 twisting kilometres up the 18km ascent of Green Mountain - aka Jabal Al Akhdar - mean to the purist climbers in the peloton?

Ask former world number one ranked rider, Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) from Spain. "Last year I was pissed off that the team sent me here. I didn't want to come because I thought it would be [all flat] like [the Tour of] Qatar," he said.

Rodriguez, an expert climber, was caught out of position on his debut in Oman last year when cross winds struck the peloton and rival teams took advantage of the gusts to force splits in the peloton before the race hit the mountain finish that rises at an average gradient of 10.5 per cent.

Rodiguez finished 13th on the stage at 1 minute 10 seconds last year to Dutchman Robert Gesink (Rabobank) who won the stage and the overall classification but is not here this year. But the Spaniard also posted the second fastest time up the climb.

Hence, Rodriguez immediately pledged to return to a race that he didn't even want to come to last year and make amends for the opportunity lost.

"I was the first to put my hand up and ask to come. I wanted to come to this race because of the opportunity on Saturday's climb," he said this week.

"Last year I got trapped in the echelons, but I've seen on the map that we are going straight to the foot of the mountain, so we will avoid the cross winds.

"Last year on the climb I did the second fastest time. This year I am feeling better. Although, I have not done any intensity [training], it's all been endurance."

American Christian Vandevelde (Garmin-Barracuda) predicts a different race up the mountain than last year when the peloton had no first hand knowledge of what it was like, other than data about its gradient and length. The three year-old race did not include Green Mountain on debut in 2010.

Vandevelde, who finished fourth overall in the 2008 Tour de France, was fifth on last year's stage to Green Mountain at 53 seconds to Gesink and eventually placed fifth overall at 2 minutes 4 seconds overall. He predicts that "there will be a bit more of a buzz" on the approach to the climb year.

"The first time in any event it's always really good. The second time it's always different because they always know what they are going into," he said.

"I will see how I feel. But I am going to give it full gas. You have to go full gas just to make it up the damn thing. You have to go hard no matter what."

Twitter: @rupertguinness

Rupert Guinness is covering the Tour of Oman courtesy of the race organisers, Amaury Sports Organisation